Bluesman Johnny Sansone joins Dan Willging to share stories of his musical journey from his early Fort Collins days with Jumpin’ Johnny and the Blues Survivors to his decades in New Orleans honing his unique sound on harmonica, accordion, and guitar. He returns to Colorado for a reunion show at Avogadro’s Number in Fort Collins and a solo performance at Goodman’s Gazebo in Denver, bringing songs, stories, and the spirit of a lifetime on the road. (Interview: 8/19/25)
Dan Willging: Johnny! Hey. Hey, Boulder. Boulder, Denver. Hello, Colorado. Oh Johnny, man, this is a thrill. Tell the listeners where you are right now.
Johnny Sansone: I’m at a truck wash, about 60 miles from Dallas, on my way to Colorado.
Dan Willging: You left early this morning?
Johnny Sansone: Oh man, I left at 5:00 AM.
Dan Willging: You made some good time.
Johnny Sansone: I did.
Dan Willging: Good. So, you’re coming up here to do some shows this weekend.
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, I’m really excited about it. It’s been a long time.
Dan Willging: The main reason you’re coming up here is to play in Fort Collins at Avogadro’s. Can you tell us what that means to you, and how that was the start of everything back when you lived in Fort Collins?
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, it’s an interesting start, because it’s been almost 50 years now. I got a swimming scholarship at Colorado State University. I didn’t know anything about Fort Collins or Colorado—I just loaded up my car. I was 18 years old and put my record collection in there, my guitar, my harps, and my saxophone, and drove out across country to Fort Collins.
I pulled in and thought, Well, wait a second—this doesn’t look like a college town. Back then—50 years ago—I don’t even think they had any bars in town. If we wanted to drink beers, we had to go to Boulder. But those were the old days. Now Fort Collins is big on the map.
There used to be a place called Avo’s—it’s still there. I lived two blocks away. They had a Wednesday night thing where you could “sing for your supper.” You got a free sandwich if you played open mic. So I went every Wednesday and played my little Jimmy Reed stuff with a harp rack, and I met this great guitar player, my age, also in college. We hit it off—his name was Mark Johnston. He asked me to come play harmonica with him. I said, Well, I’m gonna need half a sandwich for that.
Dan Willging: Did you slice it before you shared the sandwich?
Johnny Sansone: (laughs) Anyway, we started playing together, having a great time. I was just a straight-ahead harp player then. We got a bass player, so we were a trio. Then I became friends with Jimmy Bosman from St. Louis—a great piano player. He knew all the boogie-woogie and blues stuff. We added him to the band, then a rhythm section, and things really took off.
We played all the clubs, and in the summers we played ski areas. We were a great blues band. One of our last gigs was the Telluride Jazz Festival in 1982—you can still see my name on the poster: Jumpin’ Johnny and the Blues Survivors. I was Jumpin’ Johnny back then.
Dan Willging: Did you jump around a lot?
Johnny Sansone: Saxophone.
Dan Willging: Okay.
Johnny Sansone: I jumped! I was a swimmer, so I could do anything—even backflips off the piano. They just started calling me the jumping guy.
We broke up after Telluride. Jimmy went to law school in Kansas City. I decided to go to the American Motorcycle Institute in Daytona Beach, Florida. I rode my motorcycle down from Fort Collins. The band continued with other members, but sadly Mark died in a car accident, and we all went separate ways.
A couple of the guys ended up in New Orleans and formed The Iguanas—Willie Pann on drums and Rod Hodges on guitar, along with Joe Cabral, who had been around Fort Collins. Around that same time, the Subdudes were leaving New Orleans and coming to Fort Collins, while these guys were going the other way. A bit of a trade-off.
Anyway, to the punchline—I’m coming up to do this show in Fort Collins at a venue that used to be a little sandwich shop. Jimmy’s flying in tomorrow from Kansas City, I’ll be pulling up, and we’ve got a bunch of guys we used to play with. We’re really excited to celebrate friendship and music after all these years. And yes, I’m going to get a free sandwich.
Dan Willging: Hopefully two this time.
Johnny Sansone: I drove all the way up there for that sandwich after 50 years! (laughs)
Dan Willging: Another one!
Johnny Sansone: It’s gonna be great. So get your tickets, because they’re gonna sell out.
Dan Willging: They’re gonna sell out.
Johnny Sansone: Saturday.
Dan Willging: This Saturday.
Johnny Sansone: If you miss it, there’s another show—opener Cary Morin, another Fort Collins artist, will join you Sunday, August 24th at Goodman’s Gazebo in southeast Denver for a solo show at 7:00 PM.
Johnny Sansone: Get your tickets. They’ll sell out.
Dan Willging: We don’t know when Johnny’s gonna come back—he goes everywhere. You were just in Italy for a while, huh?
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, Austria, Germany, and three weeks in Italy. About a month total. I just got back.
Dan Willging: Oh, cool. And when you first went to Fort Collins, I read on your website you drove a Chevrolet Vega. That brings back memories. You had all your instruments, so you must’ve been a pretty good musician before you even left New Jersey.
Johnny Sansone: I started playing saxophone at eight. My father was a sax player—he gave me his horn and pushed me in that direction. He played with Dave Brubeck’s band during the war, was close with Dave, and took me to a “Two Generations of Brubeck” show when I was 12. Seeing Dave with his sons just flipped me out.
Backstage, I met their harmonica player, Madcat Ruth—who’s now a close friend. Back then, I was just a kid asking him a million questions: Who do I listen to? What’s that microphone? Where do I get this? He wrote down a list of players, and the next day I went straight to the record shop. That’s how I started digging into blues and harmonica.
Dan Willging: And then you picked up accordion later—after Clifton Chenier passed, right?
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, it was at his wake. His son C.J. is a close friend of mine—we were born the same day, same year. At the wake in Opelousas, Louisiana, there were accordion players from all over the world. Hundreds of them. It was beautiful. I went back to New Orleans, bought an accordion, and started playing. That was a long time ago.
Dan Willging: And you made it your own style.
Johnny Sansone: Exactly. I approached it differently than a lot of Zydeco players. I pulled out my favorite records, lined them up, and asked: Why do these move me? What makes them great? Then I tried to put those emotions into my own music. That became my Crescent City Moon album on Rounder/Bullseye Blues in the ’90s. It opened a lot of doors.
Dan Willging: And now you’re working on a new CD?
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, hopefully out next year. My last record was done in my living room during COVID. People kept asking, “Johnny, when are you gonna make just a blues record?” I always said probably never, because I’m not about just blues. I remember Ray Bonneville telling me when I was 19: Man cannot live on blues alone. And he was right—you gotta bring in other stuff too.
Dan Willging: I was thinking about whether there’s such a thing as a New Orleans style of harmonica. Maybe it’s more about the grooves and eclecticism of the city?
Johnny Sansone: Exactly. New Orleans music has a certain grease—a feel that sticks to you. Once you’ve got it, it never comes off. It makes you slippery. I tell drummers all over the world about it. It’s not about being drunk—it’s about that groove. It’s in the piano players, the drummers—you can hear it everywhere.
Dan Willging: That’s beautiful. We look forward to your solo show too.
Johnny Sansone: Yeah, that’s one of my favorite things to do—just me, rack harp, accordion, original songs, and the stories behind them. After 45 years on the road, I still feel like I’m 22.
Dan Willging: Awesome.
Johnny Sansone: And I’m honored to have that gig. I can’t even remember the last time I played in Denver. We played so many clubs in the ’70s and ’80s—it’ll be great to be back. Please come out, because we want to see you.
Dan Willging: That’s right. Doug Gertner is presenting the show, which is great. I’d hate to miss you. In fact, I love those shoes you wear on stage—multicolored, maybe from Pakistan?
Johnny Sansone: (laughs) Yeah, those shoes. I had an accident in Austria and haven’t been able to wear shoes for three weeks, but hopefully I’ll have them back on for the gig.
Dan Willging: All right, Johnny, thank you for your time, and good luck driving through Dallas.
Johnny Sansone: Thanks, man. I figure I can make it to New Mexico by nightfall. From there it’s all uphill—sea level to a mile high. I’m gonna write that song on the way.
Dan Willging: In 48 hours! (laughs)
Johnny Sansone: Sea Level to Mile High. See you there.
Dan Willging: We’ll see you Sunday. You can go to johnnysanson.com to learn more—great stories behind the pictures there.
Johnny Sansone: Thanks for the support. I plan for this to be a bridge so I can come back at least once a year. There’s no place in the world like Colorado in the summertime, and I miss it.
Dan Willging: Great.
Johnny Sansone: I’ll be there.
Dan Willging: Goodbye to Johnny Sansone.
Johnny Sansone: Bye-bye. See y’all there.
Dan Willging: Get your tickets now!
